Offshore pelagic · Saltwater
Mahi-mahi
Coryphaena hippurus
Native circumtropical/subtropical epipelagic species, present in the western Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean from Massachusetts to Texas; purely oceanic, not landlocked or introduced.
Also called Dolphinfish, Dorado, dolphin.
- Offshore
- Regulated context
- 4 of 4 overlays reviewed
- Reviewed 2026-08-27
Before you target this fish
Regulated context — check the rules for the exact water
Where this applies US South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico state and federal waters, managed by NOAA Fisheries, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, and the Caribbean Fishery Management Council under the Dolphin Wahoo FMP, plus individual state rules (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina apply a minimum size).
The reviewed context, unedited
Recreational rules differ by state and by Gulf vs. Atlantic waters: Florida's Gulf state waters currently carry no minimum size and a 10-per-person/60-per-vessel bag limit, while Florida's Atlantic state waters carry a 20 in fork length minimum and a 5-per-person/30-per-vessel bag limit; SAFMC's federal Atlantic rule is a 20 in fork length minimum with (per one source) a 10-fish recreational daily bag and a 54-fish vessel limit. The South Atlantic stock's population level and overfishing status were both listed as unknown by NOAA, with management measures precautionary rather than assessment-driven. Confirm the current size and bag limit for the exact state/water before fishing.
Rules for this fish change at a state line and sometimes inside one. Check the ones that apply to the exact water you are standing on before you act on anything here — this record is biology, not permission.
Take this somewhere
This page is the record. The reading is what happens when you add water, a season and a temperature to it — that is where the families below get ranked against each other instead of just listed.
Those three links carry the fish and nothing else. No conditions were declared on this page, so none travel, and the link says so rather than sending an empty reading.
The half nobody publishes
What this record does not know
Everything else on this page comes from a named agency or peer-reviewed source. This is the other side of that: the questions a reviewer went looking for an answer to and came back without, and the fields the record leaves empty because filling them would mean guessing.
It is here rather than at the bottom because a page that only shows what it knows is easy to read as a page that knows everything. For Mahi-mahi there are 11 of them.
Named by a reviewer
9Somebody looked for this and wrote down that they did not find it.
- Behaviour
A sourced adult thermal preference or tolerance range (°F) was not found and is omitted from the catalog record; reviewed sources describe the species only qualitatively as tropical/subtropical. One agency source gives a single distributional figure for larvae (year-round presence at about 82°F/28°C, with greater numbers in spring and fall) -- explicitly a larval distribution figure, not an adult preference range, and not used as the species thermal band for that reason.
The reviewed peer-reviewed telemetry study explicitly found no clear temperature signature distinguishing associated from unassociated behavioral modes across the oceanographic conditions it examined; a temperature-driven explanation for the floating-structure association was not established.
Cold-front / barometric-pressure response with primary-source support.
Angling-pressure response with primary-source support.
- Identification
A single continent-wide average adult length figure was not found; length/weight vary considerably by region and season.
- Forage
Seasonal or regional diet-substitution detail beyond the general prey list was not found.
A quantified ontogenetic diet shift was not found.
- Season
A month-by-month seasonal-occurrence calendar for the US western Atlantic/Gulf population was not found; only spawning-window timing and general 'warm season' habitat use are sourced.
Winter habitat use/behavior was not specifically sourced.
Absent from the record
2No reviewer wrote a gap here. The field is simply empty, which is its own answer.
- Identification
No reviewed image. A photograph is only in this catalog when an agency or a named creator labelled the subject, and nobody has cleared one for this species yet.
- Population context
No regional population profile is registered. The species-level reading stands on its own; it does not silently become a local one.
Where the record puts it
Water and range
Offshore
4 reviewed holding classes- Weed line
- Temperature break
- Current rip
- Open-water bait school
DepthA surface-oriented species; when associated with a floating object or weed line it spends the large majority of its time in the top 10 m of the water column, diving somewhat deeper (documented to roughly 20-50 m) when not associated with floating structure, with the deepest excursions typically by day.
Moving waterStrongly structure- and current-oriented despite being a fully pelagic species: concentrates under and along drifting Sargassum weed lines and other floating material, and along current-driven fronts/rips where temperature and current features concentrate prey. Larger males tend toward open-ocean water away from floating objects, while females and smaller males are more consistently associated with natural and artificial floating structure.
LightA daytime surface feeder; peer-reviewed tracking found fish associated with floating objects diving deeper by day and staying shallower at night, consistent with daytime foraging excursions from beneath the structure.
Thermal band
Temperature
- Reported active
- 61–88°F
These are measured preference figures.
Range is the full occupied-temperature envelope (16.20-30.87°C) recorded by pop-up satellite archival tags on 6 adult male dolphinfish over 83 combined tracking days in the western central Atlantic (Merten et al. 2014, Marine Biology). This is in-situ temperature actually experienced through the water column, not surface SST -- fish spent most time in the warm surface mixed layer but made brief sub-thermocline dives to depths >200 m into much colder water, so the low end reflects short excursions rather than a preferred cold limit. No narrower preferred/optimum band or a distinct cold/warm avoidance edge was found in the sources reviewed.
How it uses water
Behaviour
Social structure shifts with both age and with proximity to floating structure rather than being fixed across the species.
A fast (documented speeds up to roughly 50 knots), top-of-the-food-chain predator that pursues flying fish, squid, juvenile tuna, small pelagic fish, and other forage species, and also opportunistically takes crabs and other invertebrates sheltering around floating structure. Diet capacity is not evidence of a current bait event.
A daytime surface feeder. Peer-reviewed telemetry on fish associated with floating objects found deeper daytime diving (documented in one study region at roughly 26-53 m by day versus roughly 5-28 m at night), consistent with the fish making daytime foraging excursions beneath the structure and staying shallower after dark.
Depth movementSpends the large majority of time in the top 10 m of the water column when associated with a weed line or floating object; dives deeper (documented to roughly 20-50 m) when not associated with floating structure, most often during daylight.
Facing the currentConcentrates along drifting weed lines and at current-driven fronts/rips, where moving water and floating structure combine to hold prey.
CoverOne of the strongest floating-structure associations of any pelagic gamefish: uses Sargassum weed lines and other drifting material as both a foraging platform and likely as cover for smaller/younger fish, though the peer-reviewed study reviewed here did not find a direct temperature signature driving this behavioral split -- see gaps.
Spawning (conservation context)A near-year-round, multiple-batch spawner: NOAA reports spawning November through July for fish associated with the Florida Current and June-July off North Carolina, occurring under patches of floating Sargassum. Fecundity rises sharply with size. Spawning water and any staging concentration are conservation context only and are not described as holding water.
Where the general rule stops
- This is a fast-growing, short-lived species (commonly cited maximum lifespan around 5 years) whose stock assessment is described by NOAA as difficult precisely because of that short life span, broad geographic distribution, and highly migratory behavior -- treat population-level statements about mahi-mahi with that uncertainty in mind.
What it can eat
Forage
- Small forage fish
- Larger prey fish
- Crustaceans
- Mollusks
- Zooplankton
A fast surface predator taking flying fish, squid, juvenile tuna, small pelagic fish, billfish and jacks (per NOAA's diet list), plus crabs, shrimp, and other invertebrates associated with floating structure; larvae take zooplankton. Diet capacity is not evidence of a current bait event.
- Feeding style
- Opportunistic
- Feeding zone
- Surface
By life stage
- Young of year
- Larvae feed on zooplankton; juveniles sheltering in Sargassum feed on the small fish and invertebrates associated with the weed.
- Adult
- Adults pursue flying fish, squid, juvenile tuna, small pelagic fish, and other forage fish, plus crabs and shrimp opportunistically.
Prey sizePrey shifts from zooplankton at the larval stage to a broad mix of small pelagic fish, squid, and crustaceans as juveniles and adults; NOAA's prey list includes larger prey such as juvenile tuna and billfish for adults.
Diet capacity is not proof that a bait event is happening now; observed current forage still comes from a direct sighting, not from this dossier.
Through the year
Season
Spring
- Where they sit
- Offshore weed lines, temperature breaks, and current rips.
- Feeding
- Daytime surface pursuit of flying fish, small pelagic fish, and squid concentrated by drifting structure.
What that changesRun-and-gun cast to visible weed lines and current seams; trolling spread to locate structure in open water.
What would count against it
- Assuming a fixed regional arrival date; a sourced calendar for this was not found.
Within the near-year-round spawning window (Florida Current-associated fish spawn November-July per NOAA); spawning water is excluded from holding-water guidance.
Summer
- Where they sit
- Offshore weed lines, temperature breaks, and current rips through the peak of the warm season.
What that changesTrolling spread and live-bait slow troll along drifting structure; chum-established drift once a school is located under a weed line.
What would count against it
- Treating a single sighting of surface activity as proof of sustained local abundance.
North Carolina-associated fish spawn June-July per NOAA; spawning water is excluded from holding-water guidance.
Fall
- Where they sit
- Offshore weed lines and current features persist into fall in much of the range, though a sourced departure timeline was not found.
What would count against it
- Assuming continued offshore availability through fall/winter without a supporting source for the specific region.
Spawning · Winter, Early spring, Spring, Early summer, Summer, Late summer, Fall
A near-year-round, multiple-batch spawner: NOAA reports spawning November through July for fish associated with the Florida Current, and June-July for fish off North Carolina, with spawning occurring under patches of floating Sargassum. Fecundity rises sharply with size, from roughly 33,000-66,000 eggs per event up to several million in the largest females. Spawning water and any staging concentration are conservation context only, not holding water.
Recorded as conservation context. No spawning site, staging concentration or migration bottleneck is named anywhere in this catalog, because naming one is how a population gets fished out.
Telling it apart
Identification
What to look at
- Single dark dorsal fin extends from above the eye to near the tail.
- Oval-shaped tooth patch on the tongue, versus a wide, square tooth patch in pompano dolphinfish.
- 55-66 dorsal fin rays, more than the pompano dolphinfish.
- Bright coloration fades almost immediately after the fish is landed, so live/fresh color should not be relied on alone.
- Average adult length
- Typical landed fish run about 1 m (roughly 3.3 ft), commonly 15-29 lb.
- Common angling size
- Commonly 15-29 lb (7-13 kg) in the recreational fishery.
- Typical weight
- Commonly 15-29 lb; rarely exceeds about 33 lb (15 kg).
- Maximum documented
- Up to nearly 7 ft and 88 lb by NOAA's figures; a Florida state record of 81 lb is also documented.
- Longevity
- Matures within its first year (as early as 4-5 months of age) and can spawn at lengths as small as about 7.9 in; commonly lives up to 5 years and seldom exceeds about 4.
What it gets confused with
- Pompano dolphinfish (Coryphaena equiselis)
- Pompano dolphinfish are smaller-bodied, have fewer dorsal fin rays (fewer than the 55-66 of common dolphinfish), and have a wider, more square tooth patch on the tongue versus the oval patch of common dolphinfish.
What follows from all of that
Presentation families
Offshore
Run-and-gun cast
Cast into visible surface activity without running the school over.
- approach up-wind and off to the side
- cast to the edge of the bust
- fast retrieve
- leave before you scatter it
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- Low
- Sensitivity
- Moderate
- Casting distance
- Long
- Weight range
- 3/4–3 oz
- Cover resistance
- Low
- Line visibility
- Secondary
- Retie frequency
- Moderate
Trolling spread
Pull several baits at different distances and depths so one crosses a fish travelling through open water.
- stagger the spread
- match speed to the bait
- work the edge, not the middle
- turn on marks
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- Moderate
- Sensitivity
- Low
- Casting distance
- None
- Weight range
- Trolling weights and heads
- Cover resistance
- Low
- Line visibility
- Secondary
- Retie frequency
- Low
Live-bait slow troll
Move live bait just fast enough to cover water while it still swims naturally.
- barely-moving speed
- bait leads the boat
- let it swim
- drop back on a follow
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- Moderate
- Sensitivity
- High
- Casting distance
- None
- Weight range
- Unweighted to 4 oz
- Cover resistance
- Low
- Line visibility
- Low
- Retie frequency
- Moderate
Chum-established drift
Establish a scent trail and drift baits back through it at the speed the current is already moving.
- consistent trail
- unweighted or lightly weighted drop-back
- match the sink to the drift
- do not outpace the trail
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- Low
- Sensitivity
- High
- Casting distance
- None
- Weight range
- Unweighted to 2 oz
- Cover resistance
- Low
- Line visibility
- Low
- Retie frequency
- Moderate
What moves them for this fish
Reviewed rules that push particular families up when the conditions match. Each one names the conditions it needs and why it exists, so you can disagree with it.
Mahi-mahi concentrate under drifting Sargassum and along current-driven fronts because those features aggregate its prey, so presentations built to find and cast to that visible activity outrank ones that do not.
When
Offshore · Weed line, Current rip, Temperature break
Moves up
Run-and-gun cast, Trolling spread
Reviewed 2026-08-30
Mahi-mahi are a documented daytime surface feeder that dives deeper by day beneath structure and stays shallow at night, so casting to visible surface activity is a daylight-favored tactic.
When
Offshore · Bright or Mixed
Moves up
Run-and-gun cast
Reviewed 2026-08-30
Once a school is found holding under a weed line, mahi-mahi's floating-structure association is strong enough to hold fish in place for a scent trail or slow-trolled bait rather than requiring continued searching.
When
Offshore · Weed line
Moves up
Chum-established drift, Live-bait slow troll
Reviewed 2026-08-30
Where every sentence came from
Sources
Agency
NOAA Fisheries, Atlantic Mahi Mahi species page
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families; identification; behaviour; forage; season. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, Dolphin species page
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families; behaviour; forage; season. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
Florida FWC, Dolphinfish wildlife and habitat profile
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families; identification. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
Florida FWC, Dolphinfish recreational regulations
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families. Read 2026-08-27, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
North Carolina DEQ, pompano dolphinfish vs. common dolphinfish identification note
Used for identification. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-17.
Peer reviewed
Peer-reviewed telemetry study: vertical distributions of dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus), PLOS ONE
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families; behaviour. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-27.
Peer reviewed
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families. Read 2026-08-27, next check 2026-11-27.
A source with no link predates the rule that one has to carry a URL. It is still a real citation and still checkable; it just takes a search rather than a click, and that is worth knowing before you rely on it.